"TechBirmingham Ecycling Day" Planned for Earth Day 2005

(PRWEB) January 13, 2005

Imagine an Earth Day event that will appeal to both environmentalists and capitalists. Imagine a regional event that will benefit both those who have extra computers and those who don't have even their first. Imagine an event that can help show the world that Birmingham is an emerging region for technology development. TechBirmingham has organized such an event, the TechBirmingham Ecycling Day. It truly has something for everyone and will benefit us all.

The “Ecycling Day” event was announced today by TechBirmingham at the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Outlook 2005 conference. The ecycling event was established to encourage the citizens of the Birmingham region to recycle their used computers, cellphones, laser cartridges, spectrometers, or particle accelerators which are gathering dust in a closet, basement, or storage unit. Usable items will be slated for refurbishment and unusable items will be properly demanufactured.

Accepted items include:

• Desktop computers

• Laptop computers

• Computer monitors

• Keyboards and input devices

• Printers

• Scanners

• Fax machines and copiers

• Digital cameras

• PDAs and handheld devices

• Game systems

• Printer cartridges

• Rechargeable batteries

• Cell phones

• Remote controls

Earth Day is Friday, April 22, 2005. The TechBirmingham Ecycling Day event will be the focal point of the overall effort, during which residents from across the Birmingham region and beyond will be asked to deliver accepted items to designated, convenient collection locations. Volunteers are needed to staff and sort the items received. An opportunity also exists for youth groups to come in the following day on Saturday and further organize the collected items and prepare everything for redistribution.

Grant requests are being accepted via a form on the EcyclingDay.org website from the region's non-profits and schools. Curriculum will be provided to allow those organizations to train their own constituents to refurbish as many items as possible for use by those in our community who don't typically have access to computers. Items that must be scrapped will be demanufactured and educational exhibits will be crafted by such organizations as McWane Center to help our region's youth understand what happens when we "ecycle" these items.

Local FOX affiliate for the Birmingham television market, FOX6 WBRC-TV, has agreed to become the event's presenting media partner. Home to the state's largest news operation, the station broadcasts from a location atop Red Mountain. FOX6 will assist TechBirmingham in this effort by promoting the activities, putting out a call for volunteers, and providing education about how to prepare computers and other items prior to drop off at the collection sites on Earth Day 2005.

Other early supporters of the effort include:

• McWane Center (http://www.mcwane.org),

• Catalyst for Birmingham (http://www.catalyst4birmingham.org),

• SunGard Workflow Solutions' Octane8 (http://www.octane8.com),

• Virginia College (http://www.vc.edu),

• Computer Help For Kids,

• and the Birmingham EarthFest (http://www.birminghamearthfest.org)

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham has also been engaged to help identify worthy non-profits whose programs would benefit from an additional supply of computers.

For full details, keep checking the http://www.EcyclingDay.org website.

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